Best practices associated with community development and planning are those that can assist the Community Board and local nonprofit corporations in fulfilling their mission. Practices that focus on community-based organization capacity from block groups to major nonprofit housing development and finance corporations establish a climate of hope. This coupled with resources for the ongoing discovery of best practices will advance housing quality and foster fairness in development.
Understand the Laws Governing Change
The “as of right” rule established in 1961 has not remained entirely unchallenged. New demands for improvements in design and construction have been unrelenting if not consistent. Over the last forty years, demands for even greater flexibility established an entirely new section in the Zoning Resolution dedicated to “Special Purpose Districts” reflecting a unique "sets" of public and private developer demands.
Zoning is generally well ahead of development and reasonably responsive to demands for change by major real estate interests. The creation of special districts also responds to the unique mixed-use character of many neighborhoods throughout the city. The most recent use of the special district power was in the formation of Hudson Yards Special District and Chelsea Special District.
A second method is to change the text of the New York City Zoning Resolution itself or to change the map designation for an area without a change in text. These are major tasks because the former has citywide implications requiring extensive review and both require environmental impact assessments.
Beginning in April 1999, the City Planning Commission began to develop sweeping changes to the city’s Zoning Resolution that continue to this day. While defeated in the first round, the impetus to develop a unified bulk regulation in New York City will continue, as will efforts to adopt international building code standards.
Changes in zone alter the value of land by altering its use and bulk. Two words – “square feet” alter the value of urban land. The more that can be rented or sold the greater the value. Given a rapidly or fundamentally changing economy, the risk to capital invested in projects can be extensive.
If the future of Washington Heights and Inwood was based on “square feet” alone most of Washington Heights and Inwood would not change. It has more square feet than new construction would provide. Moreover, the existing housing does not provide off-street parking which new buildings are required to provide in a range of 40 to 50 percent of the units. This is a community that is likely to stay the way it is if the quality of the existing buildings can be maintained. Without a significant change in city policy on resources for preservation -- this may be unlikely.
A community dialogue that focuses on zoning change is often heated, impolite, and damaging on many levels. From the onset, talk of zoning is therefore a poor place to begin. The alternative is to establish a dialogue on issues that are capable of building the strength and capacity of local institutions to shape the future through mechanisms of control, if not outright ownership of land and buildings. Talk about square footage or building size is therefore less relevant than talk about the value created per square foot in social, as well as, economic terms. Given the availability of tax and financing subsidies coupled with incentives that reduce risk, the private developer can produce very profitably without going “big” and/or outside of an appropriate physical context. It is also possible to go too far as the developers of 108 East 96th Street discovered in 1986 when they were forced to remove 12 stories of a 31 story residential tower. The force of the zoning law is real and powerful. The building is located in a special district that limits buildings to 19 stories.